FAQ

Why can’t the core group hours be moved to 8:30–3:30 PM?

We understand the wish to make morning drop-off more flexible. However, as the provider we are responsible for the stability of the entire operation, the children’s wellbeing, and keeping our team healthy.

Current structure: (Core hours: 9:00 AM–4:00 PM, Early group: 7:00–9:00 AM, Late group: 4:00–6:00 PM). Beyond the argument of staffing resources alone, the requested model creates structural and legal issues that we cannot support professionally or financially:

Conflict with the Hamburg childcare voucher system: Care at our center is funded through the City of Hamburg’s childcare vouchers. These vouchers are based on fixed service types (e.g., standard approvals for 4, 5, 6, or 8 hours of continuous care). Our current model is aligned exactly with these voucher structures. If we unilaterally shift core hours to a fixed window from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM (7 hours), this no longer fits legally or for billing with the approved standard hour allocations for many parents. This would lead to major billing conflicts and, in the worst case, the loss of city funding.
The problem of “compressed attendance time” in the requested model: If core hours are compressed to 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM, almost 100% of all children are in the center at the same time. Throughout these 7 hours, the full statutory staff-to-child ratio must be maintained in all groups at all times. There is no longer any spreading out through children who arrive at 9:00 AM or leave at 3:30 PM. This requires so many staff at the same time that absences (e.g., training or vacation) can hardly be covered anymore.
Conflict with statutory break regulations: Under the Working Hours Act, our employees are entitled to a break of at least 30 minutes after 6 hours of work. In everyday practice, these breaks fall right during the children’s rest period (approx. 12:30–2:30 PM). With a compressed core time when all children are present, the staff-to-child ratio must not fall below the legal minimum during breaks. We would have to deploy a significant amount of additional “floating staff” during this time solely to cover breaks—hours that would then be missing from the educational work in the morning.
The shifted fringe hours are not workable: Shortening the early group (to 7:00–8:30 AM) does not create any meaningful capacity for us on paper, and we would also have to cut hours for an employee who covers our early group exclusively from 7:00–9:00 AM, while requiring the remaining colleagues to make up those hours as overtime.
Inefficient evening staffing due to the two-person rule: With an extended late group from 3:30 PM to 6:00 PM, for safety and supervision reasons there must always be at least two qualified staff members in the building until the very last minute. Even if only very few children are still there after 5:00 PM, we are tying up two valuable staff members into the evening. Those hours are then missing in the morning for projects, outings, or targeted preschool support.
Educational rhythm and children’s biorhythm: Our current core hours from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM provide children with a stable, proven framework. After morning circle, the morning offers enough time for relaxed free play and educational activities before lunch and the important rest period. Moving core hours earlier compresses the morning significantly and goes against the natural biorhythm of younger children.

Our current shift model enables us to distribute the team’s working hours in a healthy and efficient way throughout the day, cushion peak times, and at the same time offer reliable fringe hours for working parents.

We hope for your understanding that, in the interest of legally compliant, reliable, high-quality care, we will stick to the existing hours.